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| United States Patent |
6,011,832
|
|
Rice
, et al.
|
January 4, 2000
|
Multiple service announcement system and method
Abstract
A method for providing multiple calling service announcements on a single
circuit card within a telephone network. The method reduces the number of
stored speech files necessary to generate announcements regarding a
calling service such as Automatic Call Back or Enhanced Repeat Dial. By
reducing the amount of speech data stored on a circuit card, multiple
calling service announcements can be provided on a single circuit card,
thereby reducing equipment costs.
| Inventors:
|
Rice; Carol Ann (Springfield, IL);
Crumpler; Ronald Dale (Springfield, IL);
Downey; John David (Sherman, IL)
|
| Assignee:
|
Ameritech Corporation (Hoffman Estates, IL)
|
| Appl. No.:
|
104552 |
| Filed:
|
June 25, 1998 |
| Current U.S. Class: |
379/88.16; 379/71; 379/88.28 |
| Intern'l Class: |
H04M 001/64 |
| Field of Search: |
379/71,88.16,88.27,88.28,209,201,216,88.22,88.23,88.24
704/258,278
|
References Cited
U.S. Patent Documents
| 4439635 | Mar., 1984 | Theis et al. | 379/87.
|
| 4918322 | Apr., 1990 | Winter et al. | 379/67.
|
| 5436967 | Jul., 1995 | Hanson | 379/266.
|
| 5539808 | Jul., 1996 | Inniss et al. | 379/88.
|
| 5664060 | Sep., 1997 | Jarrett et al. | 704/278.
|
| 5724406 | Mar., 1998 | Juster | 379/88.
|
| 5742674 | Apr., 1998 | Jain et al. | 379/209.
|
| 5758323 | May., 1998 | Case | 704/278.
|
| 5771276 | Jun., 1998 | Wolf | 379/88.
|
| 5784438 | Jul., 1998 | Martinez | 379/67.
|
| 5802150 | Sep., 1998 | Beck et al. | 379/93.
|
Primary Examiner: Weaver; Scott
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Stuckman; Bruce E., Renke; Robert P.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method of providing more than one communication service on a single
circuit card comprising the steps of:
defining a first group of audio segments necessary to compose a complete
announcement of a first communication service;
defining a second group of audio segments necessary to compose a complete
announcement of a second communication service;
storing, on a single circuit card, a third group of audio segments
comprising audio segments unique to respective said first and second group
of audio segments and audio segments common to said first and second group
of audio segments; and
programming said circuit card to deliver, in response to a user selection
of either said first or second communication service, a complete
announcement for said respective service composed from said third group of
audio segments.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said first communication service is
Automatic Call Back.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein said second communication service is
Enhanced Repeat Dial.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein said circuit card is a NT1x80AA EDRAM
card.
5. A method of providing more than one communication service on a single
circuit card comprising the steps of:
defining, from a first group of audio segments, a first subset of audio
segments necessary to compose a first announcement of a first
communication service;
defining, from said first group of audio segments, a second subset of audio
segments necessary to compose a second announcement of a second
communication service;
storing only said first and second subsets of audio segments on a single
circuit card;
programming said circuit card to deliver, in response to a user selection
of either said first or second communication service, a complete
announcement for said respective service composed from said stored audio
segments.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein said first communication service is
Automatic Call Back.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein said second communication service is
Enhanced Repeat Dial.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein said circuit card is a NT1x80AA EDRAM
card.
9. A communication service announcement delivery system comprising:
a circuit card comprising a digital memory array constructed to receive and
store audio segments in digitized form;
a first group of audio segments stored on said circuit card uniquely
associated with a first announcement of a first communication service;
a second group of audio segments stored on said circuit card uniquely
associated with a second announcement of a second communication service;
a third group of audio segments stored on said circuit card commonly
associated with said first and second announcements; and
means for delivering, in response to a user selection of either said first
or second communication service, a complete announcement for said
respective service composed from said respective first or second group of
audio segments and said third group of audio segments.
10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said first communication service is
Automatic Call Back.
11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said second communication service is
Enhanced Repeat Dial.
12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein said circuit card is a NT1x80AA EDRAM
card.
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to telephone communication systems and
particularly to automatic announcement systems adapted to be connected to
telephone lines to provide for such services as Automatic Call Back and
Enhanced Repeat Dial.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Various services have become available with the development of
communications technology. For example, in a telephone system, there are
many services in practical use such as call forwarding, Automatic Voice
Messaging (AVM), Automatic Call Back (ACB), Enhanced Repeat Dial (ERD),
and Abbreviated Dialing (AD). These services are typically presented to
users by recorded announcements. Recorded announcements for such calling
services are formed from spoken words, phrases, tones or periods of
silence stored in separate speech files. In response to a request for such
calling services, various speech files are accessed in a predetermined
order to generate a complete announcement which is then presented to the
caller.
Telecommunications equipment vendors support such calling services by
providing multiple speech files on circuit cards along with a
microprocessor controller for accessing the speech files and generating
announcements. The circuit cards provide link access to the front end of a
digital phone network switch. An example of such a circuit card is the
NT1x80AA Enhanced Digital Recorded Announcement Machine (EDRAM) card
manufactured by Northern Telecom.
Commercially available circuit cards have several shortcomings, however.
The circuit cards typically have announcement fragments stored in several
separate speech files. In a typical announcement, portions of the several
speech files must be accessed to form a complete announcement. A telephone
company seeking to implement a particular calling service must purchase
all of the speech files, even though many of the fragments within the
speech files do not support the desired calling feature. Furthermore, due
to limited memory space on the circuit cards, the resources of an entire
circuit card can be exhausted in a typical implementation of a single
calling service. Thus, for each calling service implemented by a telephone
company, a dedicated circuit card must be purchased. In some instances, a
separate controller card must also be programmed to retrieve and assemble
complete announcements from the available speech files on the circuit
cards. Considering a large telephone company with many central offices,
circuit cards represent a substantial equipment investment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a general object of the present invention to reduce the number and
thus the cost of circuit cards for a telephone system. It is another
object of the present invention to provide more than one communication
service on a single circuit card.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a circuit card
with audio segments unique to two separate communication services, as well
as segments common to both services. It is still another object of the
present invention to provide a single circuit card with audio segments
necessary to compose announcements for both Automatic Call Back and
Enhanced Repeat Dial services.
These and other objects and features of the present invention will become
apparent when viewed in light of the detailed description of the preferred
embodiment when taken in conjunction with the attached drawings and
appended claims.
The present system is directed to an improved announcement delivery system
which overcomes these and other disadvantages of previous calling service
systems. The method provides more than one communication service on a
single circuit card by defining the groups of audio segments necessary to
compose a complete announcement of the first communication service such as
ACB (Automatic Call Back) and the second communication service such as ERD
(Enhanced Repeat Dial). Once the announcement fragments are defined, they
are stored on a single circuit card. The circuit card is then programmed
to deliver, in response to a user selection of either the first or second
communication service, a complete announcement for the respective service
composed from the audio segments stored on the circuit card.
For a more complete understanding of this invention, reference should be
made to the embodiment illustrated in greater detail in the attached
specification and accompanying drawings.
In particular, the present invention has a number of important advantages.
Specifically, the present invention provides an improved method of
providing multiple calling services on a single circuit card.
Another advantage of the present invention is saving recording time by
eliminating unnecessary verbiage within the speech files forming the
calling service announcements. A further advantage of the present
invention is increased speech file storage by the elimination of
unnecessary speech files for unsupported calling service announcements.
Another advantage of the present invention is improved maintenance of the
overall system due to the reduced number of components. Still another
advantage of the present invention is the reduction of equipment necessary
to implement multiple calling services, including a reduced number of
circuit cards and maintenance trunk module slots.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram representing a prior art method of implementing
multiple calling services on circuit cards;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram representing a telecommunication system
structured according to the present method of combining multiple calling
services on a single circuit card; and,
FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of the present method of implementing multiple
calling service announcements on a single EDRAM card.
BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a known method of providing
multiple calling service announcements such as for Automatic Call Back
(ACB) and Enhanced Repeat Dial (ERD). Digital recorded announcement
hardware consists of a speech processor, a microprocessor controller, and
speech memory. Using Northern Telecom's equipment, for example, the prior
art implementation of more than one calling service, such as ACB and ERD,
required a 1.times.75AA/BA controller card 10 and four additional EPROM
cards 12. A NT1x80AA EDRAM card 20 was also required complete
announcement. The controller card 10 can be programmed to select and
retrieve the various phrases, tones and periods of silence from the speech
memory of the EPROM cards.
The controller card 10, EPROM cards 12, and EDRAM card 20 each occupy a
slot in the maintenance trunk module (MTM) shelf 14. In order to operate
properly, however, the controller card 10, EDRAM card 20, and EPROM cards
12 must reside in the same MTM shelf 14. The MTM 14 contains slots for the
circuit cards 10, 12 and 20. The circuit cards 10, 12, 20 provide link
access to the front end of a digital telephone network switch. Because the
controller card 10, EDRAM card 20, and the EPROM cards 12 must reside in
the same MTM 14, the cards themselves and the space they occupy in the MTM
14 represent a significant equipment investment for a large regional
telephone company.
FIG. 2 represents the equipment requirements for multiple calling services
implemented according to the present invention. Again, using Northern
Telecom's equipment as an example, announcements for multiple calling
services can be provided with a single NT 1.times.80AA EDRAM card 20
occupying a single slot in a maintenance trunk module shelf 14.
The NT 1.times.80AA EDRAM card 20 contains dynamic random access memory
that stores the announcement data such as phrases, tones and periods of
silence. Again, as provided by the equipment vendor in a conventional
manner, the announcement data resides in pre-recorded speech files. The
present invention is an improved method of implementing calling service
announcements on a single circuit card, such as a NT 1.times.80AA EDRAM
card.
In order to provide multiple calling services on a single NT1x80AA card,
the desired calling services must first be determined. Once the calling
services are identified, the announcement fragments necessary to generate
announcements regarding the desired calling service can be identified and
prepared.
In one embodiment of the present inventive method, ACB and ERD were
selected to be provided on a single NT1x80AA card. This is shown in the
flow diagram of FIG. 3, as block 30. The first step requires an
examination of the speech files offered by Northern Telecom as EPROM cards
12. These EPROM cards 12 provide the basis for constructing announcements
offering the desired calling services of ACB and ERD. For example, the
announcement fragments of one speech file contained in the NT1.times.76AJ
EPROM card are shown in Table 1:
______________________________________
Total
Phrase
Duration:
Duration:
ID Seconds Seconds Content
______________________________________
000 1.024 1.024 (one second silence)
001 0.160 0.160 test tone: 750 Hz tone
002 0.512 Prompt tone: silence
0.096 750 Hz tone
0.032 silence
0.096 750 Hz tone
0.032 silence
0.096 750 Hz tone
0.128 0.992 silence
003 0.256 0.256 1/4 second silence
004 6.208 6.272 "We're sorry, the number cannot be
reached now by this method. Please
hang up and try again later."
005 7.680 7.74 "The last number that called your
line cannot be given out. If you
want to call this number, enter 1;
otherwise, hang up now."
006 7.488 7.552 "We're sorry, the last number that
called cannot be reached by this
method. Please hang up now and
call the number directly."
007 2.848 "The last call to your telephone
4.960 cannot be traced. Please consult
1.120 9.952 the introductory pages of your
telephone directory for further
instructions. Please hang up now."
______________________________________
From the available announcement fragments, a complete announcement can be
constructed for ACB and ERD by identifying the data necessary to present
the desired calling feature to a potential user. This is shown in FIG. 3
as block 40. Complete announcements are constructed by assigning address
locations for each Phrase ID to enable the controller to select and
process the announcement data to generate a complete announcement.
Once all of the necessary announcement fragments for ACB and ERD are
identified, the remaining fragments in the speech files can be discarded.
For example, a review of the available announcement fragments identified
in Table 1 reveals that Phrase ID 007 does not relate to either ACB or
ERD. Accordingly, Phrase ID 007 would be one announcement fragment to be
eliminated from the speech files, as shown in block 50.
Thus, in the case of Northern Telecom's equipment, portions of the four
speech files in EPROM cards 12 are necessary to support ACB and ERD, and
the remaining announcement data within the four speech files can be
eliminated. The portions of the four speech files in EPROM cards 12
necessary to support ACB and ERD can then be combined into a single set of
speech files as shown in block 60.
Once the desired announcement fragments are recorded and stored on a single
NT1x80AA EDRAM card, the announcements for ACB and ERD are constructed by
assigning address locations for each announcement fragment, as shown in
block 70. These assignments enable the controller to select and process
the announcement data to generate a complete announcement.
Assignments are made on the NT 1.times.80AA EDRAM card using the DRAMREC
command. The following is an example of the assign format for the NT
1.times.80AA:
______________________________________
DRAMREC
ASSIGN 4 SILENCE 2 2 3
ASSIGN 4 CLASSENG2 8 2 11
ASSIGN 4 CLASSENG7 3 2 9
.
.
ASSIGN 4 ENGJANUARY 1 5 57
ASSIGN 4 ENGFEBRUARY 1 5 58
.
.
.
ASSIGN 4 ENGNUM08 1 5 33
ASSIGN 4 ENGNUM09 1 5 34
ASSIGN 4 ENGAT 1 5 35
ASSIGN 4 ENGAM 1 5 36
ASSIGN 4 ENGPM 1 5 37
ASSIGN 6 BUSY2 2 0 4
ASSIGN 6 AM01 2 0 5
ASSIGN 6 AM02 2 0 6
ASSIGN 6 AM03 2 0 7
ASSIGN 6 AM04 2 0 8
ASSIGN 6 AM05 2 0 9
ASSIGN 6 BUSY1 2 0 10
QUIT
______________________________________
In the example format, the columns represent the assignment, DRAM position
#, phrase name, phrase length in seconds, block number and phrase ID,
respectively. Thus, the phrase name SILENCE may represent 0.25 seconds of
silence, and the phrase names ENGAM and ENGPM represent the speech
fragment for the phrases "a.m." and "p.m.", respectively. Other phrases
would be assigned for the days of the week and months of the year while
numbers could be assigned for minutes, seconds and telephone numbers.
Finally, speech fragments could be assigned for ACB and ERD. The speech
fragments for ACB are contained in the CLASSENG files and the speech
fragments for ERD are contained in the AMO files.
Because the speech data on the NT 1.times.80AA EDRAM card can be
re-recorded, multiple calling services such as ACB and ERD could also be
implemented on a customized single EDRAM card without regard to the
existing speech files prerecorded by Northern Telecom. Thus, desired
announcement fragments can be created and recorded on a single NT
1.times.80AA EDRAM card. This is shown in block 80. The same calling
services would be provided as before. Specifically, address assignments
for each announcement fragment would be made to enable the controller to
generate a complete announcement.
From the foregoing, it will be seen that the new and improved method of
provisioning multiple calling services on a single EDRAM overcomes the
drawbacks associated with prior implementations of multiple calling
service announcements. In particular, the described method greatly reduces
the equipment necessary to implement such multiple calling service
announcements.
While the invention will be described in connection with one or more
embodiments, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to
those embodiments. On the contrary, the invention includes all
alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the
spirit and scope of the appended claims.
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